A Toast to That
by Cinnamon1
Summary: Everybody is always telling the Maurader story from Lily's point of view, but now it is being told as the boys see it. PLEASE R/R Chapter 3 is now up!!!!!
1. A Bump to the Head

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I know I know, I really shouldn't be starting another story, especially one set in the days of MWPP, but I couldn't resist! This just popped into my head, so I had to write it…

Best Friends. That was Sirius and James. They never left each other sides. Their mothers had met in the maternity ward, when James was a day old, and Sirius was two weeks. James was a bit premature so he had to stay an extra day, and Sirius had refused to lie still. He had wriggled his way out of his sleeping mother's arms and fallen to the floor. He survived, but had to be kept in the hospital to make sure the fall hadn't injured his brain at all. He had been proved okay by the doctors, but in later years many people would argue against that decision.

(A/N I didn't mean to make it seem as though Sirius' mother neglected him, I just wanted to prove his rebellious personality has always shone through, so don't think she is an awful mother…)

Their mothers shopped for clothes for the new arrivals together and became quite close as the young boys grew into crawling, talking, and even walking. They had many play dates as they matured and celebrated many of their birthdays together. Before they were at the age of six, they had proven many times over what pranksters they could, and would be, when they arrived at Hogwarts. From everything to dying their owls green to dying their mothers' hair green, they had done it, and this is their story.

Well??? Do you like it??? I will have the first chapter up extremely soon… So PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!


	2. My Own Soul

James was in his Father's study, cleaning up papers, when Sirius came bounding in. 

"Guess what!" said Sirius, climbing into the big leather armchair that was sitting behind the desk.

"You are actually a dog in a human's body?" guessed James.

"Nope. Better." Said Sirius, swiveling around on the chair.

"What?" asked James, wanting to know if Sirius had thought up a new scheme.

"I just got my acceptance letter to Hogwarts, which you would have known had you gotten accepted yourself." Sirius said gloatingly, "But you have been such a good friend to me, and that even though you will spend the rest of you're life at home, and never going to Hogwarts, I will let you enjoy the first opening of my letter." As Sirius opened his letter, his face fell. ""WHAT?" yelled Sirius, "It says that I didn't get in because your sanity is required to get in!"

James started laughing hard as Sirius continued, "I can't believe this! What kind of Headmaster wouldn't let me in! Let me see, it says his name is Professor James Potter. Well I'll show that Pro-" Sirius suddenly realized who the person was that was the professor, and rounded on his best friend. "JAMIE!"

"Don't call me that, and hey, you would have done the same thing!" said James, still grinning.

"How did you get this anyway?" asked Sirius, still glaring at James.

"I woke up at a _usual _time this morning, and got the mail, I got my letter from a great snowy owl, and I looked over at your house and saw a owl leaving at the same time too, so I just took your letter and dropped in one of my own creation." Explained James, looking like his words were the wisdom of the ages.

"Hey! That's not fair! You opened your letter without me!" protested Sirius, "Some best friend!"

"Actually, I didn't. I've been cleaning up all morning from yesterday. Mum doesn't understand how two boys could make this big of a mess, a she is even madder that we were playing Space Invaders in Dad's office." Said James with a grimace, "At least he is gone on business, he would have killed me."

"Oh, heh heh." Said Sirius with a chuckle, "I had forgotten about that. Good thing we played it here, other wise I would have had to clean up."

The next month was full of smuggling brooms, dung bombs, and Filibuster Fireworks in and out of trunks. (In by the boys, out by their mums.) Clothes were bought and packed, then strewn about the house , textbooks were read, and then burned. A taxi was called to take them down to the train station_(A/N If they are wizards they then they don't have a car.)_ That was canceled, and a limousine was called that had a full service of soft drinks and video games, (guess who called it.) All and all, with several confused chauffeurs, James, Sirius, both of their mums, and two very harassed looking owls, arrived at platform nine and three-quarters at six to the hour.

"I don't think it would work." 

"What won't work?" 

"Asking the conductor if we could drive."

"It might."

"How?

"If we say that we are the people who are _supposed_ to be driving it."

"But what about the person who is really supposed to drive it?"

"We could kidnap him."

"Uh, I don't think getting suspended from school before we even got there would really thrill our parents, and being sent to Azkaban definitely wouldn't impress them."

"We could say somebody else kidnapped him, and then still be able to drive."

"If we say that he has been kidnapped, then they will probably be more concerned about getting him back."

"So back to the asking plan?"

"Yep."

Sirius and James dumped their stuff in an empty compartment, and started heading to the front of the compartment. They were catching parts of different conversations.

"-and then this huge monster came running at us! It's a good thing that new school rules say that kids aren't allowed to die at a sorting. It would be awful to have a repeat of that year…"

James and Sirius exchanged nervous looks as they continued walking through compartments. "What exactly _do _they do at the Sorting?" asked James, in the bravest voice he could manage.

"I don't know, Mum and Dad never told me." Said Sirius, wondering just how bad he was going to hurt after the Sorting. "Do you think they really will set a monster on us?"

"I'd hope not." Said James putting on a brave face. "Hey look, this is the Engine Room."

"Should we just go in? Or do we need to knock first?" questioned Sirius.

"Since when do you knock?" asked James, "I think that if we are going to try and drive it, we can probably just go right on in."

As Sirius was about to open the door, it opened, and another boy about their age was coming out of it.

"This is the worst thing that has ever happened!" said the boy, rather annoyed.

"What is the worst thing that ever happened?" asked James, with an air of haughtilyness.

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(A/N I don't think Haughtilyness is a real word…At least my spell checker doesn't think so.)

"They won't let us drive the train!" said the boy, looking like his best broom had been snapped in half. "Can you believe them?"

"They won't let us drive!!!" said James looking like the pits of despair.

"Why not?" asked Sirius as though Christmas had been canceled.

"Something about to many buttons, and we can't be trusted." Said the boy.

"What? They think we would push the buttons? I would never do such a thing." Said Sirius, receiving a look from James that clearly said otherwise. "So maybe I would, but still, they don't know that!"

"Another with my own soul." Said the boy, "Nice. I'm Remus. Remus Lupin."

"I'm Meredith, and this is Rachel." said Sirius pointing to himself and then James.

"Ah, split personalities? In a way I have that too." Said Remus.

"Let me guess, you're an Elizabeth, right?" asked Sirius.

"Something like that." Said Remus.

At this James pushed Sirius out of the way and introduced himself and Sirius, and invited Remus to come back to their compartment with them. Soon they were talking of anything and everything. That train ride separated their lives from childhood, and growing up. Seven years later they took a similar train ride, except they were leaving Hogwarts, and were grown up, with more knowledge of life, love, and magic.

*~*

The end of my first chapter, yea! Please R/R, and does anybody want to be my beta reader? Anybody at all? Anyway, the next chapter will be the sorting, and maybe some more like the first few weeks of school. Read the rest of my stories to, and thanks to all of you who reviewed! (Jo, frostlily, Kirioko, and Megan)


	3. The Post

_Apologies for not having this out sooner…_

After the Sorting of '67, I was in real need of that yearlong break, and not just to make up a new song. There had been quite a few memorable faces. James Potter for instance. The Potters had been Gryffindors for as long as anyone could remember. In my case that was quite a long time. James' father had married into the Rayburn family, which was notorious for throwing out Ravenclaws. It was a rather large feud between the families, and quite a bit of money had been bet on it. Quite stressful on me too. Both families tried to pay me off. I didn't accept either offers though because I had no need for material objects. (_I _was a material object.) When I was placed on James' head, I followed my heart and my head, (technically, _his _head,) and placed him in Gryffindor. A few years down the road I heard that the Ravenclaw in him came through, and he made the top of his classes, and was made Head Boy.

The Black family threw out a Gryffindor that year. Easier decision to make then I had first thought. His family had every house mixed in. He made it a lot less stressful too. Nobody cared what house he ended up in, and he had some amusing thoughts.

The classic Slytherins such as Snape, Crabbe, and Avory showed up that year. No tough decision there. They didn't even really need to come up and be sorted, but old habits die hard.

There was quite the slew of Muggle-borns that year. One of them took me forever to decide on. A rather short, fat boy. To dumb, scared, and backstabbing for Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff, he would have fit perfectly in Slytherin, but he would he been eaten alive by the natives. I finally opted for a quick game of eeny-meeny-miney-moe. Gryffindor lost. I was later informed that he had been killed by one of his best friends after graduation, and all they ever found of him was his finger.

Turns out there was even a werewolf that year. The first ever too, not the last though. He thought he would end up in Slytherin because he was a dark creature, but I had no choice but put him in Gryffindor. If he was brave enough to come to Hogwarts, a place that feared, hated, and avoided him like the plague, (actually, in an ancient wizarding community, there _was_ a plague of werewolves, but that has nothing to do with this,) then he was brave enough to be placed in the house of the daring Gryffindor.

As it always seems, there was a Weasley to sort. Bilius Weasley. Supposedly, he died soon after graduation less then twenty-four hours after he saw the Grim, but the whole matter was a little too suspicious for believability.

When I look back at that year, there was nothing memorable in particular, but yet, unforgettable. But here I sit day after day, year after year, watching the lives of many, many students progress, some even come back to roam the halls as teachers or ghosts. I swear, I can still hear the laughter of the infamous Marauders coming through the halls. But then again, what do I know? I'm just a hat.

*~*

(_A/N Okay, I kinda wimped out on the Sorting and the Feast and such, but everybody's read that nine thousand times, right? Anyway, we are no longer in the view of the Sorting Hat.)_

James Potter and Sirius Black were running through the halls a week after the Sorting took place.

"I told you Potions isn't in the Owlery," said Sirius, "Now we're going to be late all because of you!"

"What are you talking about?" retorted James, _"I'm _the one that told _you_ that we can't get to Potions by going there."

"Nuh uh," said Sirius. "I said, 'Maybe it's in the tower,' and you said, 'Potions are in the dungeons, dimwit,' then I said, "Then let's go!'"

"Then why did we end up in the owlery?" asked James; not sure he wanted to know the answer.

"How am I supposed to know?" asked Sirius, not caring. "Maybe we are child geniuses and apparated there."

"That's not possible," grinned Remus, as he ran up beside them. "First you have to be a genius before you can be a child genius."

"Funny," said Sirius sarcastically, as he slowed to a slow walk. "You don't happen to know where Potions is do you? We've been running all over the school trying to find it."

"If I knew," said Remus, "I would be on the opposite side of the school from them by now."

"Doesn't matter anymore," said James, leaning against a suit of armor, "It's more then half ov-" he never finished his sentence. While leaning against the suit of armor, he had accidentally pressed the arm down, causing the suit to move, revealing a hole, which James promptly fell into.

"Uh, Jamie?" called Sirius, "Are you dead?"

"Ow," was the only reply.

"Does that mean yes or no?" Sirius asked Remus.

"It means no," 

"Oh."

"Is there anyway to get out?" yelled Remus down the tunnel.

"I think so," James yelled back, "Go ahead and jump down."

"I'm not falling for that one again," said Sirius, "Last time I did that I got stu-" He didn't finish either. Remus pushed him down the tunnel.

"Here goes everything," said Remus, taking a deep breath, and following his comrade down the hole. Cold air rushed up past him as he fell into the dark. He had just started having fun when he landed, on James.

"I said jump down," whined James, "Not jump down on me."

"Sorry," said Remus, rather sheepishly. "I was aiming for Sirius."

"Now where's my wand?" asked James, "I can't see anything in this dark."

"Here it is!" cried out Sirius joyfully. "Never mind, that's my wand…"

"Oh, here it is!" he cried joyfully, "It was in my hand. Now does anybody remember the spell to get light come from your wand?"

The dead silence answered the question.

"Okay, forget that, I think there's a tunnel this way," said James. After blindly following the narrow tunnel for a while, it started to widen out. It then split into two. One had a bit of light coming from it, so they followed that one and left the other one for another day. 

_(A/N I know they are supposed to be at the top of their classes and everything, but they are in their first week, and they are still turning beetles into buttons, so they probably don't know how to say Lumos…)_

They followed it along till they came to a brass door that had been turned rust colored with age.

"I think it's been rusted shut," said James, frowning as he pulled on the handle.

"Maybe if we pull hard enough it will open," suggested Sirius.

"Okay," said James, grabbing onto the handle. Sirius grabbed James, and they pulled with all of their strength.

"I think we should keep going until we find another way out," said Sirius, giving up and slumping against the damp walls. James nodded his head in agreement, and had opened his mouth to say something, when the door swung open and light shone in.

"How'd you do that?" asked Sirius, his mouth falling open with amazement.

"I pushed," shrugged Remus, walking out into the light.

"This is kinda like dying," remarked Sirius, "We're walking towards the light."

"You're right, Sirius," grinned James, "It was _just_ like this last time I died."

"This looks sorta familiar," said Remus, heading towards a door, "I think we're in the-," he continued opening a door and walking in, followed by James and Sirius. Turns out they walked into the last five minutes of the Potions class they were supposed to be in. "The dungeons," finished Remus, ten seconds too late to help anybody.

"Well, well, well," said Professor Jorkins, "Look who finally decided to show up."

*~*

Three detentions, one angry kitten, (Mrs. Norris,) and several dungbombs later, James, Sirius, and Remus piled into the Gryffindor Common Room. James lost his balance and knocked Remus over who knocked over, and decapitated, a clay statue of Horacio the Huge and Hairy. Sirius tripped on the decapitated head of Horacio, and then onto an innocent bystander. That's where this little escapade lost all potential for a happy ending. Turns out, the innocent bystander had quite the temper.

"What do you think you're doing?" yelled Tess Ryder from the place she was sprawled. 

"Homework?" suggested Sirius.

"That I would not believe," said Tess as she examined her ripped bag, "If you can't even make it to class on time, then I would highly doubt that you would even _think _of _starting_ your homework."

"Okay, would you believe I was er… playing Quidditch?"

"No."

"Helping an innocent first year find their was around?"

"You're a first year."

"So?"

"_You_ don't know your way around."

"Neither do you," he retorted as he stuffed all of her fallen books back into her ripped bag. Naturally, all the books fell out again.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked.

"You're the one that brought it up."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Not."

"Too."

"No-" Tess was cut off by James and Remus' efforts to repair the broken statue. All they had succeeded in doing was turning in a lovely shade of orange, setting it on fire, and giving the face a strange grimacing look. The only reason this stopped Tess was for the fact that the fire had now caught the couch nearest her on fire. Remus, taking the initiative, tried to put the fire out. Bright blue bubbles started erupting from the fire instead.

"So, _that's_ the spell that does that," Sirius said, "I wondered."

"Great," Tess muttered, "Next you'll have pink _bunnies_ shooting _flowers_ at the fire."

"Good idea," James put in, "Think that would work?"

"What's going on in here?"

"Oh, hi professor!"

*~*

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(A/N He He, I'm so evil. Stopping the story at this part. A minor cliffhanger I'll admit, but still a cliffie… I know, I know, leaving you guys for 4 months, and a short chapter. Maybe I'll continue. I think I will.)

"You three!" a young Professor McGonagall yelled as she extinguished the flames with a flick of her wand, and returned the statue to its normal color. (It was starting to look like it was decorated for Halloween with the orange spell on it and the black burn marks,) "And you!" she said, turning to Tess, "I expected better of you!"

"But I-"

"I don't want to hear it!" McGonagall said, "All four of you will serve detention, and ten points off of Gryffindor."

"I didn't-" Tess tried again, unsuccessful.

"I don't want to hear another word about it!" she said as she restored the statue to a repaired upright spot coming closer to its original form. She didn't know the grimace on the statue was James' misguided magic. The next year too many first year Gryffindors were scared by the statue, and Horacio, the Huge and Hairy, was moved to the East Tower where he now happily resides.

"Come down to the Main hall tomorrow evening at six-o-clock sharp, and don't be late," she said, turning sharply and climbing out the portrait hole.

Tess was too mad to even speak to the boys. She turned on heel and walked up to the girl's dormitories. She didn't come down again, but an owl dropped a letter on the floor of the boy's dormitory while Remus was climbing into his pajamas before he went to bed.

"Oy, Sirius, James!" he called, "You might want to take a look at this."

James bounded up the stairs from the Common Room where he had been testing his Dungbomb Attached to Filibuster Firework experiment, (third time that day,) and Sirius came from the bathroom where he had just finished changing.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Read this," he said, handing over the letter to James, which had Tess' neat handwriting on it.

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The devils who are residing in the Boy's Dormitory; Hi

It's your fault. If Sirius wouldn't have tripped me, and you other two morons knew what you were doing, I would still have a free Sunday night. You suck.

Tess

Tess' owl arrived back in her dormitory six and a half minutes later, carrying a letter, which read;

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Tess, who resides in Tess' dormitory; Salutations

I'm sorry for getting you in trouble. Didn't mean too. Look on the bright side. You aren't Horacio the Huge and Hairy.

Remus

P.S. I'm not a moron, James is.

You're just jealous that we thought of it first. But don't worry, we won't do it again. Look on the bright side. Now you have an excuse for why you didn't get your homework done for class on Monday.

James

P.S. Remus? I can read what you wrote.

_You suck too. And it's not my fault you tripped. You're clumsy. Just suck it up and take your detention like a man. Or a woman. Or something to that effect._

Sirius Black

P.S. Look at your owl. Courtesy of me.

Tess looked up at her owl. Nothing was wrong with him. _Stupid Sirius,_ she thought, _can't even do a charm._ Her owl chose to hoot at that moment. He was spouting blue bubbles.

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(A/N Does anybody know how to retain formatting when you upload documents? I tried to have different handwriting for each of the people above, it would work when I converted it to HTML documents but it wouldn't when I would finally put it onto FanFic.net. Any suggestions?)

~*~

Tess had just reached the end of the worst week of her life. It all started out with the detention she had on the past Sunday. She had spent three hours trying to coax a Mackled Malaclaw to climb back into its cage. Unfortunately, she ended up getting to close and got bitten. Everything went down from there. 

On Monday, her bag ripped, and spilt ink all over her Transfiguration essay that she had worked so hard on, she spilt hot soup on her at lunch, then tripped over her self and landed on her most favorite person in the world, Sirius. To make it short. It wasn't a pleasant experience. 

On Tuesday, she went hazard free until after dinner. She had gotten back late from Professor McGonagal's office where she had tried to explain why she didn't have her essay the day before. She then forgot the password to the Gryffindor Common Room, and was stuck outside until Filch wandered by. He didn't believe her story and gave her another detention for the next Sunday night too. 

Wednesday she tripped and fell down a flight of stairs, making her bag rip, again. This time she had a potion for Potions due later that day in her bag. The vial broke open and spilt on the stairs. The stairs, being magical, soaked the potion right up. One step in particular got a lot and has never been quite right since. (It seems whenever one would step upon it, one's leg would fall through and be stuck.) 

Thursday the bite she had received from the Mackled Malaclaw started to turn red and get swollen so she went to the Hospital Wing. She wasn't treated by the nurse, Madame Ichor, but by the intern, Madam Pomfry. Madam Pomfry explained to her that the bite of a Mackled Malaclaw would cause bad luck to the recipient of the bite. The bad luck could last up to a week.

"Didn't you ever read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?" Madam Pomfry asked as she left the Hospital Wing.

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(A/N If you were to pick up a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, that I'm sure all of you have lying about your house, then you would find the Mackled Malaclaw on page 28.)

Madam Pomfry had given her an antidote for the bite that would restore her leg to its normal shape and color, and restore her luck to its normal level. Unfortunately, her bad luck had a say in that too. Madam Pomfry gave her the wrong vial, and she ended up spouting red boils all over her face. She ended up spending the remainder of the week in the hospital.

On Sunday, she was released, just in time for her detention.

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(A/N I know, I know, I do a lot of Author's Notes… Anyway we kinda got off the track of the boys' point of view, but I just wanted to put that tidbit in there. We're now back in the boys' lives, and you will see how the fragment above fits into the plot of this chapter.)

Sirius moaned as he trudged down to the Charms' Corridor. He was preparing himself for a long night of detention. He wasn't very sure about the reason he had detention, all he knew was Professor McGonagall screaming at him something about knocking over several trophy cases in the trophy room. He hadn't done it, and he suspected James was behind it, but Jamsie had already had detention three times that week, and her decided to take the heat off of him for a nice little break. Now James was happily plotting ways to infiltrate the kitchen while he was stuck in detention. The good thing was Remus was going to be accompanied him. At least he wouldn't be too bored.

"So, Sirius," Remus said, as he plopped down in the chair next to Sirius, "Did you see the lovely lady that will be accompanying us in our detention tonight?"

"Huh?" Sirius asked, he hadn't noticed anybody when he came into the room. (Perhaps because he was trying to get his pet salamander to voluntarily turn himself purple.) He looked over and saw Tess sitting in a desk, digging through her bag for a Sugar Quill. 

"Oh, yea." He muttered. This was going to be the worse detention of his life.

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(A/N Okay people. This is the real end this time. I'm real sorry about having this out so late. I will really try and update more often. Rather strange. Now that school has started, I have more time… Anyway, thanks for all the reviews!!!! I love you all!!! Not in a creepy stalker dude way though. Don't worry. Oh and I'll get Peter more into this story soon too.)

****


	4. Heros

Remember that computer virus that I was talking about? Well, it didn't' get fixed, so I couldn't get on.So I got a new computer!!! Now I should be able to update a lot more regularly.  
  
"I never thought one person, could be so stupid." Tess said sourly, "Or such a klutz."  
  
She had no longer said this when a large crash sounded from behind her. Sirius had run into a suit of armor. It was the third time this night. She couldn't help but wince.  
  
"I don't see why you care so much," her best friend stated.  
  
"Because he's such a.a.a stupid person! He doesn't even care about what happens to other people!" Tess moaned.  
  
"There wasn't anyone in the suit of armor; that gives him some credit."  
  
"Lily Evans!" Tess cried out appalled. "I can't believe you're siding with him! And you call yourself my friend!"  
  
"Just a friend? Not say, your best friend?" Lily said with a grin, purposely side-tracking.  
  
"No difference," Tess stated, forgetting about Sirius for the time being.  
  
"Of course there's a difference. When you're in jail, a friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Man, that was fun.'"  
  
"Why would we be in jail?" Tess quirked.  
  
"Hypothetically speaking." Lily said.  
  
"Okay, "Tess said, "Hypothetically, why would we be in jail?"  
  
Lily simply pointed to Sirius. Sirius further proved Lily's point by crashing into another suit of armor. *~*  
  
"Tell me again what happened to our homework?" Remus asked as they walked through the halls on their way to Transfiguration, near two months after the Horacio the Huge and Hairy incident.  
  
"It ate my umbrella," chimed in James.  
  
"How so?" asked an unbelieving Remus.  
  
"Well, wild creatures have a tendency to do that." Sirius stated matter a factly.  
  
"I thought our homework was to simply turn a pillow into a book, not a living animal."  
  
"It was."  
  
"So why wasn't it turned into a book?"  
  
"I messed up the charm." James sheepishly admitted.  
  
"So why didn't you turn it into a book like it was supposed to be after you messed it up? You could have messed around until you figured out the right charm."  
  
"Experiment on Brian? Never."  
  
"Brian?"  
  
"Brian. I named him."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"I couldn't simply conduct experiments on him."  
  
"Why ever not?"  
  
"There was no need. I found out the actual spell."  
  
"And we didn't use it why?"  
  
"James didn't want to kill it."  
  
"It was supposed to be a book. You can't kill inadament objects."  
  
"But we had already given life to Little Brian. That makes him alive."  
  
"It ate your umbrella."  
  
"Your point?"  
  
"Doesn't that count for anything?"  
  
"No. He's just a baby."  
  
"You sound like Hagrid."  
  
"So I've heard."  
  
"From whom?"  
  
"Hagrid."  
  
"Why were you visiting Hagrid?"  
  
"James made me give him Little Brian."  
  
"Except Hagrid said Little Brian was a Brianna, not a Brian."  
  
"That may be the saddest thing I ever heard."  
  
"It truly is."  
  
"So now we have no homework."  
  
"Not true."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yes. I happened to swipe somebody's."  
  
"Whose?"  
  
"Tessa's."  
  
"I thought her name was Tess."  
  
"It is."  
  
"But you cal-Never mind. I don't think she'll appreciate her homework missing."  
  
"I certainly wouldn't."  
  
"Nor I."  
  
"That is why she won't know it was us."  
  
"I'm sure she knows what her book looks like."  
  
"We switched it."  
  
"With what?"  
  
"A library book."  
  
"Oh, Lord."  
  
Remus did not have time to further his interrogation of Sirius and James because they had arrived upon their Transfiguration classroom to find a scene erupting in front of it.  
  
"Let me down!" screamed a terrified boy, who was suspended about three feet above everyone's heads.  
  
"Let you down?" asked a rather sinister looking Slytherin, "Okay," he said with a smirk. The chubby little boy plummeted to the ground. Remus' quick thinking saved him.  
  
"Suspedofy!" Remus bellowed, in attempt to slow his fall. Remus misthought his spell and ended up sending the boy to a screeching halt, giving the boy whiplash, instead of cushioning his fall, causing the group of Slytherins to erupt with more laughter.  
  
"Nice spell, Lupin." A rather greasy haired boy sneered. "Typical Gryffindor, can't even say a proper charm."  
  
Remus instantly recognized him from class. He wouldn't have remembered him if it weren't for the simple fact that he was the teacher's favorite in Potions. His name was Severus Snape. From what he had heard about him from around the school, he hoped that he wouldn't be seeing him much during the next seven years at Hogwarts. He was utterly wrong in his prediction of course.  
  
After eleven years of being the smallest boy in class, Peter Pettigrew had learned to pick his battles, and his friends. When a group of taller, rather menacing boys had approached him, he knew to try to duck into the Transfiguration classroom. He wasn't really the fastest boy in the world either.  
  
While being suspended from the ceiling, a different group of boys he recognized from his house Common Room came to his rescue. It was simply a sign of the Gryffindor Bravery that he had never had.  
  
Perhaps it was because he had never been brave, or from the fact that he was in a time of crisis, and needed saving. Or perhaps it was simply because he had been upside-down too long and all the blood was rushing to his head. No matter what way it was, Peter Pettigrew met his heroes that day. For the rest of his days at Hogwarts, he wasn't quite as quick, funny, smart, charming or good-looking as James, Sirius, and Remus, as though they were angels, and he was a fallen angel, trying to regain his way into Heaven, but he didn't care. Every time someone mentioned one of them, and ignored him, he simply thought of the day back in first year when while falling from the sky, he met the boys who became his real life heroes. *~* (A/N Aww. How sweet and fluffy! You could just eat it right up! Anyway, the purpose of this note is to explain that part above. In the Harry Potter books, it is mentioned how Peter is their friend. I'm going to try to make them as close as possible, despite what Peter does later. Okay? And by the way, I'm not going to have a ton of Author's Notes in this chapter. I promise.)  
  
Christmas was just through the door, down the hall, and around the corner. If you had just woken up after sleeping for thousands of years, you could tell by how the school came alive, that it was Christmas. It seemed as the Holiday's crept closer, the school buzzed louder and louder.  
  
"I think she just ran over my toe!" complained Sirius loudly, as a third year Hufflepuff whizzed by, excited after reading a letter from her parents about her Holiday plans. "Okay." James replied, uninterested. He was reading his own letter from his parents. He would be stuck at Hogwarts this year, due to a nasty bout of flu that was going through his cousins, who were coming to visit.  
  
"What are your plans for the Break?" asked Peter, walking along side Sirius.  
  
"Most likely going home," shrugged Sirius, as uninterested as James was. "Unless Mum's still mad about that whole putting itching powder in the laundry thing. Turns out my sister has a severe allergic reaction to the stuff."  
  
"I thought we did that last week, here at Hogwarts." Peter said, shaking his head.  
  
"Well, I had to give it a test run," shrugged Sirius with a grin. "What about you?"  
  
"I'm going home," said Remus. "My mom wants some help with my little brother. Says he's a little terror."  
  
"And you're going to help with this?" Peter quirked. "Or encourage this?"  
  
Remus grinned, "The latter, but hey, she doesn't know this. Yet."  
  
"Well, my holiday sounds as boring as any of yours. I'm just going home to my parents," said Peter a bit sullenly.  
  
"I thought you said your parents would be out of town that week," Remus replied, setting down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.  
  
"Yeah," shrugged Peter, "I have to go stay with my Grandparents."  
  
James winced at the thought of this, "I can't stand my Grandparents; they always pinch my cheeks."  
  
At this point in time, Sirius had decided to help himself to orange juice. It unfortunately had other plans in mind and spilt down the front of him. A Slytherin girl happened to walk by and started sneering, causing Sirius to throw the remained of the plate of toast at her.  
  
*~*  
  
A full twenty minutes later, Sirius emerged from Professor McGonagall's office, holding a note detailing when his dentition would be. Unfortunately, it was bound for the following Friday night, on which Sirius had already made plans with James, Remus, and Peter to sort out his Quidditch magazines into the piles of the one that he really liked, and the ones he just liked. Professor McGonagall could see no reason why this should supercede his detention, and issued it anyway.  
  
"I was doing them a favor," Sirius grumbled, throwing his bag down next to James' in the Library, "No one would have eaten that toast anyway."  
  
"Mmm.I'm sure," stated Peter, reading over his essay. "I'll assume the syrup you dumped over her head was also for the general good of Hogwarts?"  
  
"Naturally," said Sirius, his grin slowly reappearing on his face.  
  
"So, I suppose we're going to have to stay up until the wee hours of the night for Sirius to get back from his detention?" asked Remus.  
  
"No need," said James, "After all, detentions only last a few hours, what could go wrong?"  
  
*~* A very angry Sirius was glaring at a laughing James at the moment.  
  
"Stop laughing," he said sourly, "It's not even funny,"  
  
"It's hilarious," Remus replied from his spot on the sofa. It was 11:39 on Friday evening, and Sirius had just gotten back from his detention. His friends hadn't stopped laughing since 11:27 when he had told them what had happened.  
  
"Now really," Peter said, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, "You go down to the kitchens for a simple detention, and you come back with a second detention, and the fact that you are now banned from serving any further detentions in the kitchens. How is that not funny?"  
  
"Well, I didn't even get to have some food while I was down there. What's up with that?" a disgruntled Sirius replied, not in the mood for such things and antics as his friends were putting forward.  
  
"We could go get some," said James, remembering he too had a stomach. "You remember where the kitchens are at, right?" "Of course," Sirius said, "Who do I look like? Peter?"  
  
Choosing to ignore Sirius' last comment, Peter said, "Isn't there some rule against that though?"  
  
"Well, think about it. Within the past month, we've gotten more detentions then perhaps the entire student body of Gryffindor. We might as well get good at it." James reasoned.  
  
"Or we could simply stop getting into trouble." Remus rationalized, not knowing if he was prepared to spend the next six-and-a-half years in detention.  
  
"Remus does have a point," Peter argued, "I can't think of any good reason to do this, besides the fact that Sirius wants a midnight-snack."  
  
"Oh, come off of it." Sirius almost whined, "You know you want to."  
  
"No I don't." Peter said shortly, not willing to risk a detention over Sirius' stomach.  
  
"We'll make a deal." James said quickly, hoping his idea would work, "We go out this one time, and if we get caught, we'll walk the straight and narrow from here on in. But if we don't." he trailed off, wondering if friends would go for it.  
  
"We haven't even agreed to go THIS time," Peter pointed out.  
  
"It's a deal," Remus said, shaking James' outstretched hand.  
  
"Hey!" exclaimed Peter, wondering how his resistance had become futile.  
  
"Just make a lot of noise," Remus whispered in his ear as they walked to the portrait hole.  
  
The four boys crept as silently as possible, considering they had never done this before, down in the direction in which Sirius directed them to go.  
  
"Are you sure it's down this way?" asked a worried Peter.  
  
"Dead sure," replied Sirius matter-a-factly.  
  
"I don't think this is how our parents envisioned our education at Hogwarts." Remus said, as they turned into a corridor.  
  
"Perhaps not," James said, "But hey, you're only young once."  
  
"And I would like to be able to live these years in peace," Peter said, "And not wondering if we are going to get in trouble every moment of the day."  
  
"So we just get really good at being really bad," Sirius said, "Then we won't get as many detentions."  
  
"Well there's a little bit of messed up Sirius-logic for you." James commented.  
  
"I'm choosing to overlook that last remark from the peanut gallery, and point out that we have arrived upon the scene of our soon to be crime." Sirius said.  
  
The canvas with the bowl of fruit upon it was entertaining a small girl from a different watercolor that had decided to come for a midnight snack herself. She was apparently trying to take a bite from the apple, which didn't seem to appreciate it much. She had just spotted the group of boys, when Sirius quickly reached up and tickled the pear. The portrait swung open before the girl had a chance to call out to Filch, the caretaker.  
  
"Welcome to the Kitchens." Sirius said with a grin. He couldn't help thinking these next few years would at least be amusing ones if nothing else.  
  
*~*  
  
Free of any pursuers, the four boys climbed back into the Gryffindor Common Room. Sirius couldn't help but grin at the fact that they had a successful mission.  
  
"Now wasn't that the best?" asked a rather excited James, "Just.waltzing into the kitchens and wandering the halls while the entire Hogwarts populace was sleeping."  
  
"Speaking of which, my conscience will never be clear after doing this. I will never be able to sleep," griped Peter.  
  
"The good may be able to sleep better," Sirius said, "But the bad enjoy the waking hours much more."  
  
"While I must admit this was an entertaining night, we have to make an appearance at breakfast tomorrow, or we might have this little transgression blamed on us," Remus said, nodding to the boy's dormitories.  
  
Slowly the boys climbed the steps. A simple little escapade into the kitchen turned into a much bigger project. In the morning the House Elves would be in an uproar over the mess and the school would most likely follow suit. The four boys climbed into their night clothes and hopped into their beds. Unfortunately eleven-year-old boys needed more sleep than they were about to get. But in the years to come, there would be loads more nights on which there would be no sleep.  
  
(A/N Instead of ending my story here at 10 pages, I've decided to go on because of all the nice reviews I've gotten and the fact that I haven't updated in forever.)  
  
The next morning the school was in an uproar. Someone had placed biting teacups in the kitchens, and they were not letting up on the campaign to end fingers. The professors were slowly, one by one cursing them to pieces. Because these cups had lain dormant until the food was served, several students had been placed in the Hospital Wing until further notice. The culprits had yet to be apprehended, though a sourly looking bunch of Slytherins seemed to be a little too gleeful for the occasion.  
  
The only people completely aware of the situation upon returning to consciousness were the four perpetrators, who didn't believe all the ruckus was just over their little prank that they had pulled the night before.  
  
They were still grinning wildly when they reached the entrance to the Great Hall. Unfortunately, they didn't make it any further then those doors.  
  
*~*  
  
"No better than common thieves!" Professor McGonagall yelled at the four boys who were sitting in four very large, leather, uncomfortable chairs. "Like a bunch of marauders."  
  
The four boys had yet to utter a word. There was no way they had expected this from the Professor, no matter what her reputation for sternness was. They were looking as though they were about to be thrown on some medieval torture system. (If Filch would have had his way, they would have been thrown on some medieval torture system.)  
  
"A detention and ten points of Gryffindor off for each of you." McGonagall continued, hoping this would deter the boys from any further exploits in the life of crime.  
  
"Yes, ma'am," the four of them barely squeaked out. This was the first time they had been in trouble for something that had been intentional, and they hadn't even thought of the famous Potter Charm, Black Grin, and Lupin Wit that would later get them out of quite a few trysts in the wizarding world.  
  
They slowly slinked out of Professor McGonagall's office and headed to the Gryffindor Common Room.  
  
"At least we'll never go through that again," Remus said, shaking his head, glad the ordeal was over.  
  
Sirius rolled his eyes at this, "What? You don't think we'll ever get caught again?"  
  
"No," Peter piped in, "Because we're not going to be doing anything ever again." "Why the bloody hell not?" James exclaimed, "We're not going to have a detention and forty points off of Gryffindor for no reason!"  
  
"Yes, we are." Remus replied, "The deal was if we got caught, then we wouldn't continue, but if we didn't, we could continue."  
  
"But we didn't get caught last night. We got caught this morning. Big difference there." Sirius put in, trying to prove his point.  
  
"Either way, we got caught," Remus said, "And that means no more pranking."  
  
"Awe, c'mon Remus," James complained, "We're just novices, we'll get better with time. In a couple of years maybe we won't ever get caught!"  
  
"That I highly doubt." Remus said, sticking fast to his points.  
  
"How about we try it for a couple of years and then see if the life of crime really for us?" Sirius suggested  
  
"The deal was for one night!" An exasperated Peter put in.  
  
"And now it's for two years," James said simply.  
  
"Fine," grumbled a disgruntled Remus.  
  
"But man, did you see McGonagall's face?" James asked.  
  
"Like a bunch of marauders," Sirius mocked, using his best McGonagall voice.  
  
*~*  
  
A week had passed since the teacup incident and the detentions had been served. Trunks were packed, and everybody was ready to head home for the holidays and presents. The four boys were double checking everything, and getting into their pajamas.  
  
"You know," said Peter, as he was climbing into his night clothes, "If we are going to be doing this, we should really get an invisibility cloak."  
  
James snorted at this idea. "Yeah, I can imagine, 'Mum? I want an invisibility cloak for Christmas. No reason. Not like I'm going to wander around the school at night and get into trouble and places I'm not supposed to be, I just have an inclination to get one. That's all.'"  
  
Remus and Sirius laughed. There was no way one of them would ever get their hands on an invisibility cloak.  
  
*~*  
  
"You got an invisibility cloak?!?" Sirius half yelled as James triumphantly held it up.  
  
"Yup. Size Double Extra Large. Perfect for fitting more than one person underneath it," James said, grinning madly, "Dad said it is some family heirloom, and I should treat it with respect and all that."  
  
"Forget that," Sirius said, "Think of all the things we can do now! It'll be like we're.invisible!"  
  
"That's what invisibility cloaks usually do," James said, raising an eyebrow at his best friend's course of thought. Sirius had decided to come over to James' house on Boxing Day to give his mum a rest. James couldn't resist showing him the cloak. He could barely wait until Remus and Peter saw this. It would undeniably convince the two of them they would be able to pull the pranking off. This would definitely be an improvement on their lives.  
  
(AN/ Okay Okay, this was a cheesy chapter but hopefully you liked it. Thanks to my beta reader Ember Firecat, and to all of you lovely reviewers! The next chapter is already in the making, so it won't take too much longer for it to come out.) 


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